A Dream of Changing Leaves
by PixelDemise
Summary: Shizuha hates festivals, especially ones where people don't even recognize her. This year she decides to let Minoriko enjoy it alone.


Hello again. I started writing this one between episodes of Sora no Woto as it got me in the mood to write something different. Shizuha has always been in my top 3 Touhou characters. I really don't get why she is so unpopular along with Minoriko, aren't they the most adorable characters in the whole series? 

* * *

Shizuha stood leaning against a fence near the border of the Human village. It was mid-November and she had finally finished her duties as one of the Goddesses of Autumn, painting the trees. Since she first opened her eyes, her duty was to paint the leaves of the trees red, orange and yellow to prepare them for winter.

It was a job that she enjoyed, as much as one could enjoy. Considering she was essentially the Grim Reaper of nature. When she steps out of her house at the end of summer, it meant that the plants were going to begin dying and the cold embrace of winter was coming soon.

She was very proud of her work. No one really knows just how hard it is to cover each and every tree in such a large area. Thankfully some were evergreens and she didn't need to paint all of them.

However, she still was upset. When Autumn does finally come around, she spends hours and hours, days and days, working and sweating to fill nature with beauty. Yet she never got any recognition for it. That was all stolen away by her younger sister, Minoriko.

She loved Minoriko like no one else could. Minoriko was everything to her. But she still was frustrated when the Humans would come and shower Minoriko with praise, thanking her for the bountiful harvests and good crops and no one would willingly thank her for anything. People sometimes would, but only due to obligation due to her younger sister. No one ever meant their thanks. Who would even want to thank a god of death and decay.

That is how it always was. She, the goddess of loneliness and demise, would never be able to stand against her younger sister, the goddess of abundance and plenty.

Letting out a large sigh, she looked up towards the village. They were in the middle of their annual festival to give thanks to the nature spirits and to Minoriko for granting them a good harvest for the year.

She could hear the partying going on in the village. People yelling and cheering, sake being poured by the barrel, she thought she even heard the poltergeist sisters preforming somewhere nearby.

She wasn't a fan of crowds. While she loved what few followers she did have, she always felt out of place in festivals and parties. Her pessimistic nature, both literally and figuratively would always bring a trail of bad air when she arrived, so over the years she learned to just stay away from big crowds.

Another large sigh escaped her lips as she leaned her head back over the railing. She stared up at the sky, watching the clouds drift by. It was getting slightly colder now. Even without her duties painting the trees, she could tell winter was close.

Her stomach was beginning to growl. She wanted something to eat, but didn't want to get near the festival. Doing so would only put her in a worse mood, and for the sake of her little sister, she didn't want to ruin her festival.

She looked around at the nearby area. She was essentially inside the farms, maybe there were a few crops the Farmers didn't notice that she could snag. It isn't as if they would care if she took anything. One of the benefits of being the older sister of the girl who lets them even grow food in the first place.

Noticing an apple tree with a few fruit still clinging to its branches, she moves over beneath it. The fruit is too high to reach from the ground, she didn't feel like trying to climb it, and she didn't want to waste energy flying either.

Well, if those three options weren't available, go with plan D. Kicking them down.

Taking a step backwards, she lifted her foot and placed it behind her. With a quiet grunt, she sent her leg slamming forward, impacting the tree with more force than one would expect from such a small girl.

The leaves on the tree at shuddered before falling off, leaving the tree completely barren. The fruit fell to the ground as well, which she quickly picked up. She would likely kill herself if those Tengu reporters found out, but despite how gracefully and calmly she hand-paints each leaf, she found satisfaction in just kicking the tree until the leaves began to fall. Something about punishing the tree for wasting so much of her time and work that she won't ever get recognition for.

She brushed off the dirt with her dress before taking a bite into the apple. With one taste, she could tell why the farmers left these. She wasn't any sort of crop specialist, that was her sister, but Shizuha could tell these weren't quite ripe yet.

It didn't matter much. It was either eat these apples, take time to find something else that was likely as bad, or head into the festival. The last two options she didn't feel like doing.

Taking three of the apples on the ground and placing them under her arm, she used her free hand to start eating the first one she grabbed.

She stood there beneath the now barren tree and finished the first apple before tossing it to the ground. Maybe it would rot quickly enough and it would be used up by the tree to store nutrients before winter arrived. If not, maybe some hungry squirrel or bird might eat the remains for dinner.

She began to bite into another apple as she began to walk again. She was beginning to get a headache from the noise of the village. Sparing a glance over towards the festival, she could see her sister up on a podium. Flowers were all over the place, she had baskets of the best crops the Humans had grown around her, and other gifts and offerings from the Villagers.

Shizuha's face fell at the sight of that. She was very happy for her sister, make no mistake. But still, she wished that she could get the same recognition that her sister does.

She began to wander into the woods outside the village. Fallen leaves covered the ground, the few animals still running outside were preparing for winter, and all in all it was a very beautiful sight in her opinion. There may be some bias, due to most of this being done by her, but she didn't exactly care. If everyone else didn't want to recognize her hard work, at least she could enjoy it herself.

She finished another apple and tossed it to the side.

It wasn't as if she expected everyone to suddenly start loving her. The only people who are able to take pleasure in the changing colors of the leaves were those whose survival was already guaranteed, people who never needed to worry about if they would have a meal that night. Asking others to compare the rotting of leaves to the ripening of fruit was a cruel thing to do, something Shizuha didn't want to ask. Regardless, she still wished at least more would pay attention to her work. Maybe not everyone all the time, but just some a little more often.

Down to her last apple. Her stomach rumbled. Maybe apples on an empty stomach wasn't the best idea.

If there was one thing she was looking forward to though, it would be after the festival for two reasons. The first was that the noise would settle down and the peaceful calm of everyday life would return, barring the chance of another bored Youkai or God deciding to cause trouble for the umpteenth time.

The second, and the one she was more looking forward to was her sister's plans. For the last few decades, Minoriko had noticed that her older sister was always down when the Autumnal festival began. So she began trying to throw her own small party at their home after the festival was finished. She was never good at hiding it, and she had been doing it year after year so it wasn't much of a surprise anymore.

Shizuha didn't exactly like it, it felt somewhat condescending in her opinion. As if Minoriko was mocking her without realizing what she was doing. But the smile on Minoriko's face when Shizuha acted happy about it was more than worth putting up with it, so she never mentioned a thing.

Her last apple was finished. She tossed the core to the bushes. Some animal could have whatever remained for their dinner.

She continued to wander into the woods. She could feel something nearby, an animal of some kind. Unsure of why it caught her interest, Shizuha began to move towards the presence.

It took little time before she was in a small clearing. Trees surrounded her on all sides, their leaves drifting in the light breeze. The sky overhead was cloudy, with only a bare spec of sunlight peeking through. At the center of the clearing, lay a deer.

Its fur was filthy, it's chest struggled to raise and fall. As Shizuha walked towards it, there were no wounds, and if there were, she knew something would have come along and have eaten it already. Its fur was covered in filth and grey colors. Its skin sagged down and it was unable to move. Age must have finally caught up to it.

She stepped in front of the deer, and watched its eyes dart up to meet hers. Bending down in front of it, she spoke. "Dying animal. You regret that in your final moments, you see the Symbol of Loneliness and Demise, rather than the Symbol of Abundance and Plenty, don't you?"

Shizuha reached out a hand towards it before a voice made her recall her hand.

"That isn't true!"

Shizuha spun around with wide eyes. "Minoriko!"

Standing behind her next to a tree, was her younger sister Minoriko.

"That isn't true at all sis! I'm sure he's really happy to see you." Minoriko stepped from the tree and towards Shizuha. "Everything that dies before winter is always really happy to see you!"

Shizuha scoffed. "Why would a dying animal want to see me over you. The sight of you means it will keep living, the sight of me means it is going to die." It came out harsher than she wanted.

Minoriko flinched back. Her sister sometimes became like this during the festival period, so she was used to the harsh words and she knew her sister never meant to be mean, but they still stung her.

Minoriko racked her mind trying to figure out what to say. She had planned something to convince her sister, but the harsh comment made her lose her train of thought and she forget what she wanted to say. "Umm… Because… Because…"

Taking in a breath, it finally came to her. "Everything that dies before winter is always really glad to see you sis. Because." Minoriko waved her arms around her at the surroundings. "Because you are beautiful."

"It's sad that they have to die. And it's sad no one really gives your painting any appreciation. But in their last moments, they get to be surrounded with really really beautiful sights. I'm sure that that deer right now is thinking about how happy he is to have his resting place be so calm and pretty."

Minoriko took in a deep breath. "So don't ever say people aren't happy to see you!"

She ran over and tackled Shizuha into a large hug. Shizuha stood silently for a moment, before closing her eyes and wrapping her arms around Minoriko. She let out a quiet "I guess…" before both sisters sat there for a few moments in each other's arms.

They stepped apart, Minoriko wearing a huge grin and Shizuha having a small smile on her face. "Don't be sad sis, lots of people love you, even if they don't really say it."

Shizuha turned around back towards the deer. She crouched down to look at it again. Its eyes had glossed over.

She almost reached out again to try and touch it but didn't do anything. Letting out a sigh, she stood up. Minoriko spoke from behind her. "Let's head back sis. I'm sure something in the forest can keep on living because of it."

Shizuha gave a small nod. It was rather silly of her, but she gave a quick prayer that the deer's spirit would keep being happy wherever it ended up.

With one final glance, she left the deer behind and walked back into the forest, following behind Minoriko who happily charged forward.

Today wasn't nearly as bad as she expected it to be. 

* * *

Despite the fact that she never got any lines of dialog, I feel like I managed to capture her personality based on Aya and Hatate's news reports rather well. Shizuha feels like the type of person who is self-sabotagingly depressed. Like you could go up to her and say that you love her and want to get married, but she will take it as "you are only doing this to marry into Minoriko's family, not because you actually like me." However despite that, she really likes people. So her thoughts and her train of thought are rather hypocritical at times, jumping between being pissed because no one pays attention to her, and being happy because life is good and she and her sister(more her sister) have ample amounts of faith from the Humans.

Also two quick notes. Her dress is freaking beautiful as it is, I hate it when artists change the length or remove the color fade and the maple leaf-like hem. Also, she kicks trees until their leaves fall down, she must be amazing at kickboxing.


End file.
